


Thunderstorms

by paradoxals5



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Desert Bluffs, Gen, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Strexcorp, Strexcorp is Evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 20:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2081265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradoxals5/pseuds/paradoxals5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>StrexCorp makes sure natural rain falls only once a year in Desert Bluffs, and today is that day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thunderstorms

**Author's Note:**

> I really, really like this one. Please leave criticism though, I want to know if I'm portraying these characters accurately enough and if there's anything else I could do/not do in future fics, thank you!

Lauren went on and on, her plastic smile and faux enthusiasm seeming just plain unpleasant this morning, much like the rain that was pattering off of the window. It caused a familiar drilling sensation in Kevin’s ears, making it hard to focus.

     He dropped down into his seat as quietly as possible, casting quick glances at Lauren, who was now staring directly at him. “… but we’re not going to let a little rain keep up from being productive, are we Kevin?” She asked, and she had just the faintest smirk to her smile. Which was unusual, and yet usual enough to make Kevin’s stomach unsettle.

     “No we’re not Lauren.” He shot back at her. He faced his microphone. “Listeners, I know today may seem different, scary even, seeing as though the sun is blocked out by these nasty clouds, but we shouldn’t feel lost because of this. Or lazy.” He added sternly. “The sun is still there, Desert Bluffs, and it is still shining just as bright. We can’t let something like a few rain clouds ruin our day. We have to keep doing our work like we always do.” Kevin spaced out for a moment, listening to the rain. It was heavy and sounded so strange compared to the other rains that fell in Desert Bluffs. It was more erratic than the other rains. It was… soothing.

     No. It was not. It was _not_ soothing.

     Thunder rolled in and Kevin quickly inhaled, holding his breath for a moment.

     Lauren cleared her throat. “Kevin?” She said, tone rising along with her chipper attitude. “A word from our sponsor?” She was drumming her fingers off of the table, trying to physically shrug off the heavy air that suddenly settled in the room.

     “Ah, yes!” He said, putting that smile back up where it belonged. “Let’s see here…” He looked down at the sheet in front of him. It had everything on it that both he and Lauren were going to say, had said, and should say. He noticed there were a handful of parts that he was supposed to of said, but had not.

     “Our sponsor today is of course, none other than StexCorp.” He said with zeal. “‘The city is large, but you are small. The world is larger, but you are still small. StexCorp is even larger, and yet you’re still so small.” He stressed the last two words, thought he was not supposed to. He was not even supposed to say this. So why was he? What was he saying? He wasn’t even reading what was on the prepared packet of lines. He was just talking. “You are so small, and I am so small. We’re all very small—but—together, we make something larger. We make friends, work buddies, families, small businesses, communities, large businesses, the world.” A sudden and deep pain throbbed in Kevin’s head as the thunder returned. “That’s right.” He continued nonetheless. “You, me, everyone around us makes the world. And StrexCorp? StrexCorp makes the world out of us. StexCorp. Work towards that bright future.” He finished with a barely audible exhale, rubbing his temples.

     Lauren blinked at Kevin, her smile stiff. She chuckled, then coughed out some more merry sounding laughs. All it sounded like to Kevin was a fork against fine china. He covered his face with his hands. He couldn’t hide it though. Not from StrexCorp, not from their smiling god, not even from Lauren, who kicked his shin as she started talking again.

     “We’re getting reports of what appears to be some slackers.”

     “Oh, really?” Kevin asked with just a tad bit too little emotion. “Taking advantage of the rain, are they?”

     “Apparently so.” Kevin could almost see the venom in her words. “It seems like this little bit of rain is just too much for some of us to handle.” She clicked her tongue with playful shaming. “They just can’t get to work, can they Kevin?”

     “I guess not, Lauren.” He said through grit teeth. “But don’t worry, StrexCorp has just now sent out special representatives that are going over to these loafers and show them back to their appropriate working stations, and make sure they get back into the right working mood.” His cheeks started to hurt, which, now that he thought about it, hadn’t of done so since around a year ago. He pressed his lips firmly together, giving his mouth a little relief, while still holding a smile.

     “How wonderful!” Lauren trilled, and Kevin had to bite his tongue and grip his chair again. He went back to listening to the rain as she transitioned them over to traffic. Normally he was supposed to do traffic. In fact, Kevin was supposed to be doing most of this show. It was _his_ show. Despite that, he didn’t dare to look down and count how many lines he had missed, or how many sectioned he did not speak.

     How much he was slacking.

     He should notice it though; this was job, his dream job, to be exact. Not a lot of people in Desert Bluffs were able to get their dream jobs. Lauren could testify to that, if she ever dared to.

     The thunder rumbled just loud enough to block out most of the rain. Kevin looked down at the transcript and counted each paragraph, each line, word, character. It counted up to roughly…

     He didn’t want to think about it anymore.

     It started to downpour. Kevin leaned forward with his elbows on the table, closer to the microphone, though it was not his turn to talk. He tried to count every time a rain drop hit the window. He wanted to be able to predict every one of them. He couldn’t though, and there was something blissful about that.

     _No._ It was not blissful. _Nothing_ about this rain shower was blissful. Why Kevin would choose such a precious word to describe something as defective as natural rain was far beyond their— _his_ —comprehension.

     Lauren sighed contentedly. “Well, this has been traffic. Or should I say, lack thereof traffic.” Kevin glanced over at her just long enough to notice that she was actually pleased with herself with whatever that was she just said. A joke? Was that really supposed to be a joke? Maybe he missed half of it. The thunder was much louder now, and the rain only made it harder to hear. Yes, that had to be it. It was all of the noise. That dreaded thunder, booming loud enough that it seemed to echo endlessly in Kevin’s ears. The constant roar only intensified with Kevin’s every motion to ignore it. He shouldn’t be ignoring it, he should be listening to it. Not to the rain, to the thunder: listening to it. Listening to _us._

     “Well, I think now is a good time for us to go to the weather.” Kevin rushed, laughing nervously and reaching over Lauren to slap his hand down on the console. He flipped the switch that took them off air, and put on the weather instead.

     “What? But Kevin, it’s way too early for that!” Lauren said, confusion flashing across her face as Kevin stood up so hastily he almost knocked his chair over. “Kevin? Kevin!” She watched him rush out of the recording booth.

     Kevin tried to calm his breathing. He tried to count to ten, he tried to think of a song’s beat to hum along to, but it only made the rumbling intensify.

     He bumped into one of the interns as he walked past, not noticing he had knocked the packages the man was holding onto the floor. The contents spilled and harsh whispers came from behind the StexCorp management door, but Kevin was already outside the station.

     The rain sounded clearer out here. There wasn’t a building to muffle it, just the metal awning that covered the top of the cement stairs to help enhance it.

     Leaning against the railing, Kevin tried once again to listen to the rain and not think about anything else. Not about his job, not about how dangerous this was, not about Lauren who had followed him apparently for she was hissing his name through the double doors. He had to think about…

     _Work_. And the fact that he wasn’t doing it. What was Kevin doing? Standing outside, nearly in the rain? He was exactly three inches away from being out from under the awning and getting drenched. He should be inside. In fact, Kevin is going to turn around _and go back inside_.

     Kevin had turned half of his body towards the door too, when he suddenly stopped. “No.” He said, shaking his head. “No, no, no!” The thunder was just quiet enough.

     He jumped the three steps to the pathway and ran to the parking lot.

     “Kevin!” Lauren shouted, opening the door and stepping outside herself. She stopped herself from going any further though, for she knew she couldn’t.

     Kevin stumbled over to his car and got into it, peeling out of the small parking lot and onto the main road with a hard left. His mind brought up the fact that the downpour was muffled when in the car, and not a minute passed and the resound of the tires mixed with the roar that had been plaguing him all day.

     He had to slow down. He was going over the speed limit. Not by much though, if he slowed down now then perhaps he wouldn’t get in trouble. StrexCorp might just let him off with only a retraining session.

     Kevin grit his teeth, and not just to keep a smile on his face. His right leg tensed with the need to pull up off of the gas pedal, but he put that force into his hands that were clamped around the steering wheel, not caring that his index and middle fingers were cutting into his thumbs.

     It was a blessing that there were no other people on the road. But that meant Kevin shouldn’t be on the road either. He should be turning around, and heading back to the radio station. StrexCorp understood this rainy day was stressful for everyone; surely they would still cut him a break.

     Kevin whined. His hands were shaking and he wasn’t even anywhere near the outskirts of town, let alone the limits. He curled his toes and put the gas pedal to the floor, breathing only when he remembered, which was when it was only absolutely necessary.

     Going faster was not the right thing to do. He knew this very well, but still disobeyed orders. StrexCorp would be very disappointed in Kevin unless he stopped right then and there, _before_ he reached over one hundred miles per hour and StrexCorp would have to send out squad cars.

     But Kevin didn’t stop. His car hit one hundred on the speedometer and kept going.

     Oh, Kevin.

     He wasn’t sure what he yelped at. The sirens, or the squad car that suddenly appeared at an intersection and crossed its way over to him.

     You just ran a red light, Kevin.

     He let out a sob and squeezed his eyes shut.

     You’re running from the law, Kevin.

     When his eyes opened that half of a second later, he was greeted with the view of a StrexCorp official’s car heading for him dead on. He turned the wheel and the car lurched to the right, going off of the road and bashing up onto the sidewalk and then driving across a lawn next to a three story office building.

     _We are not pleased with you, Kevin._

     Kevin’s small car was able to fit between the buildings and take sharper corners than the squad cars. He lost two of them as he cut through a park and entered a neighborhood. That official’s car had also totaled itself by following him and crashing into a tree that was hiding behind a person’s house.

_Stop the car, Kevin._

     As Kevin drove out through the outskirts and closer to the city limits, heading into the open desert, he felt his left arm tense up just like his leg was earlier. He tried to keep it in place, but his fingers peeled themselves back.

      _Stop the car, now!_

     His hand shot down and grabbed at the emergency brake, but just as his thumb was about to push the button in so the hand could yank it up, his car zipped past the city line and the thunder stopped.

     Both arm and leg relaxed, Kevin shifted to sit more comfortably in his seat. He stared out the windshield, which needed the wipers on terribly.

     Clearing the windshield showed the rapidly approaching boulders ahead of him. He slammed on the brakes with a surprised yell and harshly turned the steering wheel. The car spinning a full circle before hitting one of the boulders on the passenger side and coming to lurching stop.

     No airbags deployed. Kevin’s car didn't have them anymore.

     Breathing heavily, he turned off the whining vehicle and stared off through the windshield. The rain drummed on the roof and through the shattered windows to drizzle onto the inside of the doors, as if to beckon him outside.

     He pushed open the door and stumbled out, dropping to his knees and sitting down on his legs. His whole body shook and he sobbed, looking up at the horizon.

     He expected to see Desert Bluffs, his town, his home, all lit up and beautiful like it always was.

     It wasn't. It was dark, shrouded by the thick clouds and the heavy precipitation.

          Kevin brought trembling hands up to his face and held them there for a brief moment before combing them back through his hair. His shoulders dropped and his cheeks ached even worse now that he finally had stopped smiling.

     He sat back and leaned against his car. He took one last look at his city before tilting his head up and staring up at the darkened sky. He couldn't see the sun. There was no sun, just the water drops that bounced randomly off of his head.

     For the first time since exactly one year ago, Kevin sat and relaxed. He heard nothing, saw nothing, and thought of nothing. It was just the rain.


End file.
